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7 thoughts on “Roof!”

My son did this(can I post a photo) for his AS Extended Project thing at college; we followed Simon’s book pretty much to the letter (flower pot minus the bottom works well as a chimney!); finished top layer on Thursday – few minor cracks but we are aiming to give it a firing tomorrow!

Hi Simon, looks as though we visited the same stoveworks. My chimney dismounts and then I fasten a Heath Robinson polycarbonate roof over the oven. Last year I skimmed the outside with a mix of fine sand, clay & cement which provides a hard protective shell. There are a few small cracks but they’re manageable. Already had some cracking lamb leg and beef rib dishes – Jersey royal potatoes were to die for. John G

Simon…help…we have the plinth, the sand form and are ready to go…but our clay sand mix seems too sandy?? We went with 2:1 sand to clay, but we have had to start adding more clay and its taking forever. We wet the clay to try and get it mixed in, but it all seems too wet and yet still too sandy. If we add sand to dry it out, wont that make it too sandy again?. We are thinking we may just have to keep adding clay and mushing more, what do you think?

Hi Jan. Apologies for the delay. 2:1 is a guide. It depends on lots of factors, mostly the moisture content of the sand and clay. Add more clay if you need to. The drop test is key. if it’s too wet when you build with it, it’ll slump around the sides – not a massive disaster really but it’ll take up precious plinth space. Too dry and it’ll be hard to manipulate. If you have added too much water, let it dry out naturally for a while.